


Thank you

by darcyalex



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e09 Stand Tall, Family, Multi, Nothing to Lose, stand tall, thank you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26733052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darcyalex/pseuds/darcyalex
Summary: A look at the Nothing to Lose/Stand Tall scenes from a different point of view.What was going through the boys minds when they were playing with Caleb? How did they escape and why did Luke struggle so hard to come through at The Orpheum? All the questions I was asking, so I answered them myself. Enjoy x
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 15
Kudos: 268





	Thank you

When the smoke cleared and the boys oriented themselves, it was clear they weren’t in the studio anymore.

Luke looked down and noticed their location wasn’t the only thing that had changed. He was now dressed in a suit that matched the blue guitar his parents bought him. His white guitar was over his shoulder now.

“Well, don’t you look nice?”

_Caleb._

Luke held back his anger as he tugged at the neck of the suit. He felt ridiculous. The jacket was too tight and the neck felt like if he could breathe, he’d suffocate.

“Sweet threads,” Reggie noted. He did think they looked good—the suit look wasn’t really their thing, but there was no denying they looked sharp.

In a moment of panic, Alex asked, “How’d you know our sizes?” Suddenly he understood why Reggie was always saying such odd things. When you panicked, sometimes all you could do was say the first dumb thought that came into your head.

Luke looked at the drummer. “That’s your question?” He wasn’t as annoyed with Alex’s weird question as he looked—he was more annoyed at trying to loosen that damn collar.

Caleb ignored their words and started another pitch on his offer. He was still trying to convince them to join the club, but Luke was getting the feeling that there wasn’t much choice left in it—he had been trying to poof out since they’d got there, but it was no use.

When Caleb stood in front of Luke, he adjusted the collar Luke had messed with and talked about the applause and recognition they could get by performing with Caleb. Luke thought about it, thought about how that was all he had ever wanted to do with his life, and now he was being offered to do it for the rest of his afterlife.

A jolt hit the boys and Caleb’s next words scared Luke. “Do you really have time to make that mistake?”

 _What if Caleb was right?_ he thought. What if they couldn’t cross over and were just written out of existence?

“. . . The clock is ticking,” Caleb said.

On cue, another jolt hit the boys.

Caleb walked out on stage and begun his performance to the audience. It quickly became clear it wasn’t the audience he was performing for, it was the boys. Every time Caleb turned and sang towards them, each of them could feel something taking control of them. Luke and Reggie’s feet began to tap, and next thing Alex was twirling his drumsticks.

Before Luke could blink, Alex disappeared and reappeared on stage behind the drum kit.

“Alex!” Caleb introduced. “Show me what you got!”

Alex couldn’t control any of his next moves. He was hitting out a drum solo he’d never heard before like he’d played it a hundred times.

Reggie was the next one to disappear from beside Luke and then he was on stage, playing his own solo to Caleb’s song.

Luke watched as his friends tried to resist Caleb’s power over them, but he could see how impossible it was for them.

That’s when he could feel Caleb trying to pull him in. Luke fought back as hard as he could, not just for him, but for his band mates. If he could just manage to resist Caleb’s power, if they could see it was possible, then maybe they could resist it too.

His hands started playing the guitar solo, and he could see and feel Caleb trying to pull him out to the stage, but Luke tried to fight back. Caleb would drag him out a few steps before Luke was able to take a couple back.

But every time Luke pushed back, Caleb pulled harder. If Caleb was still building up to the full power he could use on them, Luke didn’t know if he could hold out much longer.

Looking at Reggie and Alex, Luke could see how scared they were. They were all scared. Being stuck working for Caleb wasn’t what any of them wanted, but now the choice felt gone. They were going to accept Caleb’s offer whether they wanted to or not.

The boys looked at each other, a defeated feeling settling over each of them.

The song Caleb had been playing ended and the room continued to cheer for them. It was the kind of cheer Luke had been dreaming of—everyone in the room on their feet in applause. But he realized it wasn’t for them. They hadn’t played any of their own music, or even sung a note. It was all Caleb, all his music, all his praise.

Caleb began another song and Luke felt his anger rising again. He didn’t want the praise or the cheers if it wasn’t really for them. And he certainly didn’t want it if they couldn’t share it with Julie. Luke continued to fight the magic hold over him. Caleb looked at Luke with a wicked grin and didn’t miss a note as he pointed a finger and pushed Luke further into submission.

Luke was running out of energy, between Caleb’s magic and the number those jolts had been doing on him, he knew Caleb was going to win.

Alex heard it first. Caleb was so busy trying to hold onto Luke, it was like he didn’t have enough power to fight Luke and keep control of the other two.

_“Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing, I’mma stand tall.”_

_Julie,_ Alex thought. He couldn’t just hear her, he could _feel_ her singing—singing out to them. That’s when Alex started playing a different beat. He was playing along to Julie.

That got Caleb’s attention and he turned to Alex with a furious fire in his eyes. But it was too late, Alex flashed out of the club and then he was on stage at the Orpheum, and there was Julie. He’d managed to adjusted the threads Caleb had put them in so he could play properly and he kept playing along with Julie.

She looked surprised to see him, but relieved. Alex realized she’d had no idea what had happened to them. She must have thought they’d been destroyed by Caleb’s stamp.

At Caleb’s club, Reggie had heard Julie singing just moments after Alex. After the drummer disappeared, Caleb turned to Reggie, who had also started playing along to Julie instead of the house band. With a victorious look at the evil man, Reggie flashed out and appeared on stage at the Orpheum, right next to Julie, feeling more comfortable in his own adjusted outfit. He was just as happy to see her as she was to see him.

Caleb turned on Luke. He had completely lost all composure now and looked like a mad man so full of rage, which only made Luke smile. The guitarist started playing a few notes to _Stand Tall_ , and then he could hear her. Julie was out there, and he had never needed her more than that moment. The extra magic Caleb had already put on Luke was making it harder for him to get to her.

_“And it’s one, two, three, four times.”_

Luke flashed out and through the flicker, for just a moment, he could see the stage, the Orpheum, the audience. Then he was back at Caleb’s, he’d managed to ditch that god awful jacket, and open up the neck of the shirt, which made it easier to play his own tune instead of playing along to Caleb’s band.

Caleb still looked at him with a victorious confidence, as Luke desperately tried to keep playing along with Julie and resist Caleb.

_“That I’ll try for one more night.”_

Luke flashed in and out a few more times and finally, when he looked across the stage, he saw her. Julie was looking at him, singing for him. Looking in her eyes, he tried to hold onto that feeling.

Pulled back to Caleb’s, the magician had a mad, evil look on his face, which disappeared when he saw Luke return. Luke stood straight—he stood _tall_ —to the old ghost, holding his ground with a victorious smirk of his own.

 _“Light a fire in my eyes,”_ he heard in his head.

“Better luck next time, Caleb,” Luke said, triumphantly.

He thought about Julie again, standing on that stage for him and the boys. She was his family, Alex and Reggie were his family. Nothing was going to tear them apart.

In the split second before Luke disappeared again, he saw Caleb’s face turn to a whole new level of anger and madness. “No!”

_“I’m going out of my mind!”_

Luke flashed back to the Orpheum and knew he was free. Caleb’s magic wasn’t powerful enough to break them apart now.

Not worrying for a second about what would happen at the end of the show, Luke savored every moment. He allowed himself to be completely consumed by the cheers of the crowd, the beat of Alex’s drums, every deep bass note Reggie played thrumming into his heart. And most of all, he watched Julie. He might never see her again, but he could have watched her perform forever.

Julie had gotten up on stage, committed to performing for herself. He was so proud of her for getting up there on her own. Luke’s biggest worry the last few days had been Julie losing her music. It had taken her a year to find her voice again after her mom died, and she still felt like she couldn’t perform without the boys by her side. They were all worried about her, but Luke was terrified that losing the boys so soon after finding music again would cause Julie to lose it forever.

If Julie hadn’t been able to get up on that stage, the boys might have all been trapped with Caleb forever. She sang for them and reminded them that they were a family and no music was worth doing without each other.

 _“Even if I’m the last standing, I’mma stand tall,”_ Luke sung with Julie, savoring that last note.

Their song ended to thunderous applause, and the boys were gone mid bow.

A moment later, they reappeared side stage, where they could see Julie looking beside her, believing they’d crossed over. The boys looked at each other and back to Julie as she waved to the crowd.

Alex took a single step toward the stage, but Luke put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Don’t you want to say goodbye?” he asked.

Luke looked at Julie again and even from here he could see it—she thought it worked. They’d had their goodbyes and he wasn’t sure he could do it again. Luke shook his head and the three of them stood and watched her.

Then it hit him. Another one of the jolts.

All three boys fell to their knees from the pain. This wasn’t just painful, it was deadly. They wouldn’t have many of those left. Reggie looked at his band mates.

“If we’re supposed to crossover, it better happen soon,” the bassist said, rubbing his chest like the others.

Luke and Alex looked at him, they didn’t have the heart to tell him what they’d already realized, so they waited for him to work it out from the looks on their faces.

“Oh,” Reggie said.

They all shared a look, and without saying a word, they all poofed back to the studio. Alex and Reggie left and Luke took one final look at Julie. He etched her face into his mind, and then poofed out after the others.

Back at the studio, they didn’t say anything for a long time.

“We can’t stay here, what if Julie finds us?” Alex pointed out when he finally decided to be the one to break the silence.

They hadn’t even had to discuss whether or not to tell Julie that their plan hadn’t worked. She thought they’d crossed over and that meant she could move on in peace—none of them wanted to take that away from her.

“She thinks we’re not here anymore,” Reggie said. “She’ll probably go straight to bed.”

“She probably won’t,” Alex argued. “Luke, please, tell him we can’t stay.”

Luke, who hadn’t said a word since they got back, looked at Alex. “We don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said softly. He looked around for a moment and continued, “We’ll turn the lights out. If she doesn’t think we’re here, maybe she won’t find out. Right now, at the end boys, there’s no place in the world I’d rather be than here in this room with you two.”

Luke and Reggie moved over next to the grand piano and Alex walked over to turn the light out before joining them. The three of them huddled together.

“I’m almost glad we never got to play the Orpheum in ’95,” Alex said.

Reggie nodded. “I wouldn’t trade tonight’s show for anything in the world.”

“I love you, guys,” Luke said. They all had tears in their eyes now. “Family forever.”

He put a hand in the middle of their little circle. Alex put his on top, then Reggie, and Luke followed with his other hand and so did the others. They shared a look of love, and then another jolt hit.

They could feel it now, how much weaker the jolts were making them. Luke didn’t have the energy to stand anymore, so he laid down on the floor—Reggie and Alex laid down with him and they didn’t share another word.

In his final moments, Luke recalled the memories that he loved most. He recalled his best memories with his parents, before the arguments started. He remembered the first time he’d ever jammed out with Alex and Reggie, just twelve years old and all the hopes in the world of making it big. But mostly, he thought of Julie.

He thought about the first time he’d heard her sing, the first time they performed together. He remembered the moment he knew he loved her while they performed _Finally Free_. Then he thought about that last moment he saw her, that he had made sure to hold on to for this moment.

When the garage door opened, Luke stayed as quiet as possible. He and Reggie were going to get the biggest ‘I told you so’ from Alex if they still had the energy to speak after Julie left.

“I know I already said this,” she said, “but, thank you guys.”

That was it, it was all he needed and he was ready to go. He didn’t have to be scared of not existing anymore knowing that she was going to be okay.

 _You’re welcome_ , he thought, but didn’t dare say out loud. _Thank you, Julie._

“You’re welcome,” Reggie said

“Dude!” Luke said, all his worries about Julie being okay suddenly returning.

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaaaaaand we all know how the rest goes!
> 
> Thank you all for the love on my last fic! I hope you love this one too x If you have any headcannons or season 2 hopes that you wanna swing my way for ideas, I'm on tumblr @ raiseyourvoicetotherain
> 
> Thanks again guys! X


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